Disabled people need help to stay in work | Letter

Your article(Liz Kendall says getting people into work is best way to cut benefits bill, 6 March) quotes the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, as saying: “I think the only way that you get the welfare bill on a more sustainable footing is to get people into work.” What is not acknowledged in this statement is that getting people into work means nothing without there also being support to help keep them in work.One of the most effective mechanisms for helping to keep disabled people in work is silently being cut by the government. As a disabled academic, for the last three years I have had a support worker, funded through the Access to Work scheme. This support has been integral to not just my remaining employed but flourishing

If civil servants have to make the grade, MPs should too | Brief letters

I see that the government is planning a cull of civil servants and will be aiming to incentivise underperformers to leave (9 March). I wonder whether a similar plan is envisaged to deal with politicians of a likewise disposition. If so, we had better prepare for general elections on a much more frequent basis – provided of course that they can be arranged by civil servants of an acceptable standard.Nigel JordanCrowthorne, Berkshire Reading the letters expressing different points of view on Jack Vettriano (Letters, 9 March) I was reminded of an old cartoon that shows two people in a gallery looking at John Constable’s The Hay Wain, with one asking the other: “It’s a lovely picture, but what does it mean?”Peter PhilpottPatrick Brompton, North Yorkshire Re Jack Vettriano’s work, I recalled my 1950s physicist headmaster quoting Claude Bernard’s “Art is I; science is we” after trying to explain Boyle’s law to fledgling sixth formers.Dr Roger MerryBath “Laura has a pleasing voice” (Letters, 9 March) reminds me of my brief stint in the school choir

Stop ‘outsourcing’ decisions to quangos, Starmer tells cabinet

Keir Starmer has told cabinet ministers they should stop “outsourcing” decisions to regulators and quangos and take more responsibility for their own departments.He said they “must go further and faster to reform the state, to deliver a strong, agile and active state that delivers for working people”.The prime minister’s comments at the weekly cabinet meeting come before an important speech this week on reforming the state, which is expected to result in significant Whitehall job cuts.The comments will raise the possibility that Starmer and the Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden intend to cut a number of quangos – though Labour has been criticised for creating at least a dozen during its first months in office.Starmer said departments should be “assessing processes and regulations that play no part in delivering the Plan for Change”, and that meant government taking responsibility for major decisions “rather than outsourcing them to regulators and bodies as had become the trend under the previous government”

Silent minority: 15 peers claimed £585k while not speaking in a single Lords debate

Fifteen members of the House of Lords did not say a word in the chamber, sit on a committee or hold any government post during the last parliament, while claiming more than £500,000 in allowances between them.Analysis by the Guardian has revealed the extent to which some members of the UK’s upper chamber do little or no parliamentary work.Peers can claim an allowance of £361 for every day they turn up. They do not have to vote, speak or do any work beyond entering the building in order to be able to claim this money. They can also claim back money for certain travel expenses

Police investigate Reform MP Rupert Lowe over alleged ‘verbal threats’

The Metropolitan police are investigating the suspended Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe after the party alleged he had made threats against its chair.A statement by the force, which did not name Lowe, said: “The Metropolitan police have now launched an investigation into an allegation of a series of verbal threats made by a 67-year-old man.”The investigation was in relation to “a series of alleged threats made between December 2024 and February 2025”, the statement said, adding: “Further enquiries are ongoing at this stage.”On Friday, Reform said the Great Yarmouth MP had lost the party whip after complaints about workplace bullying and “evidence of derogatory and discriminatory remarks”, and the claim that Lowe had “on at least two occasions made threats of physical violence against our party chairman [Zia Yusuf]”.In a series of statements and interviews since the suspension, Lowe has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and argued that the party’s decision to suspend him was a politically motivated act of revenge after he had criticised Nigel Farage’s leadership of Reform

Ousted Reform MP Rupert Lowe could join breakaway rightwing party

The ousted Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe could join forces in a breakaway rightwing party with a former deputy leader of the party who was also forced out by Nigel Farage.The offer came from the former Brexit party MEP Ben Habib, an outspoken critic of Farage, who said he was “constantly in touch” with Lowe.Lowe was stripped of the party whip by Reform last week after being accused of bullying and making threats against the party chair, Zia Yusuf, claims that he denies. He previously gave an interview criticising Farage’s leadership and the party’s decision-making processes, saying Farage had a “messianic” style.The party split comes before a major test for Reform UK at the local elections in May and also a byelection in Runcorn and Helsby, which is a chance to show if the party can translate its recent poll lead into further electoral success